Wednesday, September 11, 2019

Art Club: Opening the kiln


It's coming to the end of term 3 and the children's ceramics work are fresh off the kiln! There is a lot of anticipation when it comes to ceramics class. In every step of the process, nothing is guaranteed. Things could happen during firing that resulted in failure of pieces which could only be thrown away (so far, nothing like that yet) or it's not even your fault but because the pieces are placed close together, you can't prevent an accident, just cause and effect. 

In every lesson, the children learnt from other children's work and we discussed about the good, bad and ugly. Everyone need to work together to make the lesson happen. The glazes doesn't fill themselves up. Someone has to wedge the recycle clay and ensure it's kept and mist properly. Someone has to plan the schedule to fire and reload the kiln. So, they need to know the work behind the scenes that they won't need to do and all teachers ask for is that they bring a good attitude to class and enjoy.